How to network as a new Twitch streamer

Twitch isn’t like most other types of social media. Growth on Twitch usually has to be earned on other platforms and brought over to your stream. This makes networking on Twitch even more important than on other social media.

We’ve written this guide to help you understand how Twitch streamers and networking works. 

This guide covers:

• Networking on Twitch
• Using Discord
• Building your brand on Twitter
• Bringing followers from TikTok

You could be the best streamer on Twitch, but if you’re not networking, then your channel won’t grow. You can use a couple of different platforms to network successfully, and below are the most useful ones.

For your following to grow on Twitch, you usually have to be taken under the wing of an already established streamer. Finding a suitable streamer to befriend can be difficult. 

If you try to interact with a streamer who already has hundreds or thousands of followers, you’re going to be a drop in the ocean. Any message you send is likely to get instantly hidden by the messages from other viewers.

Instead, find a streamer slightly more popular than yourself. Once you find one, there are a couple of things you can do. 

Whenever a streamer is online, their chat is active so people can speak to them. This is how most viewers interact with their favourite streamers and build a strong rapport with them. 

You, too, can join a stream and start chatting to the host, but beware of one very important rule. 

Do not go into a streamers chat and promote your own channel.

This is widely considered to be a rude and abrupt tactic. Not only that, but it simply doesn’t work. Viewers don’t want to leave a stream they are happily watching to check out a stream they might not like. 

So how do you network with other streamers?

• By chatting to them normally.
• Asking their advice.
• Discussing topics that multiple people can get involved in.

For example, once you’ve actively chatted during someone’s stream a few times, tell them you’re thinking about getting into streaming too, and ask what tips they might have. 

Once you’ve built a relationship with a couple of different streamers, try to collaborate a stream with them. The best time for this is during an in-game event, or just after a new update. 

Events and updates usually mean parts of the game have changed significantly, and it can be a great idea to explore the new content with a friend. Team-up streams are very popular, and can easily lead to improved follower counts for the streamers involved. 

If you haven’t heard of Discord, it’s essentially a chatroom service. Discord allows you to build your own community, with specific channels to discuss certain topics. 

Most streamers have their own Discord server, where they invite their viewers to chat with them further.

If you’re becoming a Twitch streamer, then you should definitely set up your own Discord server. You should also join a few other servers, so you can get an idea of how to build yours. 

The point of Twitter is to improve your brand. It’s easy to use your Twitter account as yourself, but remember there is a divide between your personal and public persona. 

Interacting with other streamers (and gaming professionals) on Twitter can help your brand build attention. 

If people decide they like your written content, they may decide to check out your Twitch streams too. You can even upload clips from your streams to Twitter, which can further tempt new viewers to join you on Twitch.

Believe it or not, TikTok is a great way to network with people and bring them to your stream. Since you can upload different content to the platform, it’s a great place to upload clips from your streams. 

The clips you upload can then get attention from other users, who may decide to check out your streams.

Once you’ve hit 1,000 followers on TikTok, you can start going live. It’s a lot easier to get followers on TikTok than it is on Twitch. So, you can start a livestream on TikTok and then get your viewers to jump onto your Twitch stream.  

Not all of your TikTok viewers will convert into Twitch followers, but some will. As your channels grow and become established, you may even find that you get higher conversion rates from your TikTok live streams.

Once your following grows, you can become a Twitch Affiliate. As an affiliate, you’re able to monetise your streams and start earning. 

Becoming a Twitch Affiliate requires the following criteria to be met:

• 500 minutes broadcast in the last 30 days
• 7 separate broadcast days in the last 30 days
• 3 or more simultaneous viewers on average per stream
• 50+ followers

Once these conditions are met, you should receive an email from Twitch inviting you to affiliate status. 

Particularly loyal followers will choose to subscribe to your channel. This can provide them with benefits like special emojis that only subscribers can access. 

A subscription to any Twitch channel costs £4.49 per month, which is split 50/50 between you and the platform. This means that per subscriber, you’ll earn about £2.25.

While it may not seem like a lot at first, as your channel grows you’ll get more and more subscribers. The streamer xQc boasts the highest subscriber count, with over 84,000 subscribers at time of writing. That should earn him approximately £189,000 per month. 

As an affiliate, you also get access to ad revenue. Viewers who aren’t subscribed to your channel get shown ads at set intervals (which you have control over). 

These ads then generate additional revenue for your channel. While the value of an ad changes monthly, it’s about $250 (£185) per 100 viewers. 

Whether you’re making money off your Twitch subscribers or your ad breaks, you’ll need a way to keep track of your cash. 

Instead of spending hours going over your bookkeeping, combine your business account and accounting software by using the Countingup app.

That way, you can save time and focus on providing the best service to your followers.
Get started for free.